Five reasons why you don’t need to panic about coronavirus variants

Why cities will come back stronger after covid  

Sponsored by Adobe The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Don't panic about variants 05.13.21 Good morning! Today: why there's no need to panic about coronavirus variants, why we can expect cities to rebound strongly post-pandemic, and a new episode of our podcast explores the use of AI to judge creditworthiness. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Five reasons why you don’t need to panic about coronavirus variants   What’s going on: News stories about “double mutants” and “dangerous variants” stoke fears that these viruses will soon be able to evade the immune response and render our best vaccines ineffective, sending us back into lockdown. In reality, while vaccines may become less effective over time, there’s no evidence that we’re on the brink of catastrophe.  Reasons for optimism:  Vaccines still offer decent protection.  Even when vaccinated people do get infected, the shots overwhelmingly keep them alive and out of hospital.  Antibodies are only part of the picture. There’s good reason to believe that our body’s T-cell response should provide ample protection against most of the SARS-CoV-2 variants. If the effectiveness of vaccines begins to wane, we can make booster shots. Moderna has already started testing one which has produced promising initial results. The fact we keep seeing the same sorts of mutations popping up across the different variants is positive. It’s a phenomenon known as convergent evolution, and it indicates the virus may be running out of new ways to adapt to the current environment.  What’s needed next: However, we can’t be too complacent. While the vaccine rollout has been going well in many rich countries, poorer countries may not have widespread access to vaccines until 2022 or even later. That gives the virus ample opportunities to surge and adapt. Read the full story. —Cassandra Willyard Why cities will come back stronger after covid  Cities have had a tough year. The very thing that makes them so dynamic—the ease of connecting with people and gathering in large groups—seemed to render them more dangerous than before. No wonder so many of those that could afford to ended up fleeing to the countryside. Actually, studies show urban living may not be as covid-risky as you might suspect. Dense cities tend to have better hospitals and easier access to medical care, including preventative care, for example. Urbanization was trending up before the pandemic, and despite the appeals of country life, this trend is likely to persist. As we recover from covid, it’s worth remembering what drew us to cities in the first place. They host people of varying skills, backgrounds, and ambitions in the same location. At their best, cities distribute resources to their citizens efficiently and equitably. And they’re resilient, just like the people who live in them. Read the full story. —Andrew Giambrone This story is from the latest edition of MIT Technology Review, all about cities. Check out the full magazine, and if you haven't yet, subscribe! Podcast: Can AI fix your credit? Credit scores have been used for decades to assess consumer creditworthiness, but their scope is far greater now that they are powered by algorithms. Not only do they consider vastly more data, in both volume and type, but they increasingly affect whether you can buy a car, rent an apartment, or get a full-time job.  Our award-winning podcast, In Machines We Trust, explores just how much the machines that determine our credit worthiness have come to affect far more than our financial lives in the second episode of a series on automation and our wallets. You can listen to the 18-minute episode here on Apple, and here on Spotify, and wherever else you get your podcasts. We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + Looking to jazz up your salad repertoire? Look no further.   + This artist plays with shadows.   + What if no one has actually reached the summits of any of the world's tallest mountains? (NYT $) Sponsor Message In a cookieless future, half-baked marketing won’t do Online businesses have for years relied on third-party cookies for profiles of site visitors. Are they prepared for a world without them? Learn more here. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The world had a chance to avoid the pandemic—but blew it That's the deeply galling conclusion of a new independent WHO-commissioned report. (TR)   + More than 4,000 Indians have died of covid-19 for the second straight day. (Reuters $)   + Covid has revealed the flaws in the way we gather scientific evidence. (Nature)  2 A new brain implant lets paralysed people write with their minds 🧠✍️ One day, this tech could help millions communicate. (Scientific American $)   3 The FDA may be on the cusp of approving new anti-obesity drugs 💊 Incretins appear to elicit significant weight loss in most patients. (NYT $)   4 It might be about to get harder to catch pedophiles online Police say that will be the impact if Facebook makes all its messaging services end-to-end encrypted. (Wired UK)   + The child safety problem on platforms is even worse than you might think. (The Verge)  5 The government is struggling to keep up with self-driving cars 🚗 People are increasingly driving in a dangerous gray zone. (Recode)   + A Tesla owner in California has been arrested for using autopilot while sitting in the backseat. (The Next Web)  6 Tesla will no longer accept bitcoin Allegedly, Musk has only just noticed it's a giant climate catastrophe. Unbelievable. (BBC)   + And bitcoin's price has plunged as a result. (CNBC)  7 Feminists in China are facing an online onslaught Weibo is flagging their posts as "anti-China" and using that damning label to shut down their accounts. (NBC)   + Reminder: a feminist internet would be better for everyone. (TR)  8 Clubhouse has really messed up blocking It's introduced an easily-weaponized block feature which seems to concentrate power in the hands of the users who already have it. (The Atlantic $)   9 What happens when credit agencies can't tell you and your twin apart You're faced with an unholy mess, basically. (The Verge)   10 The case for just letting us all work from home forever Surveys repeatedly suggest that is where most of us (who have the option) want to spend most of our working lives. (Wired $)   +  But WeWork’s boss reckons that workers who want to come back to the office are "more engaged." (WSJ $) Understand the promise of technology. Make MIT Technology Review your go-to resource for thought-provoking insights, analysis, and news about the world of technology. Get unlimited access when you subscribe today. Quote of the Day “It’s a war zone. It’s worse than what you’re reading in the papers or seeing on TV. Whatever the numbers are, they don’t tell the full story. The human toll is devastating.” —Ramanan Laxminarayan, an epidemiologist and economist at Princeton currently living in New Delhi, tells the New Yorker that official figures are capturing just a fraction of the extent of India's crisis.  Top image credit: AP PHOTO | KIN CHEUNG Please send shadows to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up today Re-envision the future of work Join us virtually | June 8-10, 2021 Register now   Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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